Let Me Go
by tints
Summary: He doesn't want to let her go. LB. Futurefic.


**Let Me Go  
**_Lucas/Brooke_

**Spoilers/Warnings:** The B/L/P triangle. Some little bits with 3x22.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine. ;/  
**Summary:** He doesn't want to let her go. LB. Future-fic.  
**Notes:** I know nothing about airports, but think of the Tree Hill airport in 3x01. Surprisingly, this is my first Brucas. (Not Brathan. ;/) Feedback is love:) (This is a one-shot).

* * *

He found her at the airport, maybe ten minutes before she'd leave Tree Hill for good - or for a couple of months like Haley said, but he doubted that, because if she could escape Tree Hill with the burns she's got, why would she bother coming back after she's healed?

He almost caused an accident - running into some old car being driven by a sixty-year-old male who _really_ needs to learn that the pathway is where he belongs, not on the road - but he made it here. In one piece.

_Hopefully._

There was no time to worry about _that_ right now. He moved through the entrance doors that opened at the presence of someone, and he jogged towards the spot where he had come home from the summer two years before.

_"Quick, maybe you can tell me you love me or something."_

He couldn't see her. Even by raising his height, he _still_ couldn't see her. _Damn it_, he cursed, and he was off again, headed towards where the seats usually littered most of the floor.

_Bingo._

He watched her as she rose from her seat - her flight being called, _"Flight for New York,"_ was all he caught as it echoed inside his brain, getting louder and louder as each word ran crazy in his ears - and he was off again, walking at a fast pace as he grabbed her elbow gently. She turned around, and gasped a little, obviously shocked to see _him_ there.

"Luke -"

Lucas quickly started to apologise, "Brooke, I'm sorry. For everything. I didn't mean -"

The twinkle in her eyes disappeared, as quickly as a slap to the face would've been, and she quickly spoke, her tone warning, "Luke, you're with _Peyton_ now, I'm not going to do what you did to me. _Never._ You had your chance - _two_ chances - and you blew it." He knew she was trying to create a barrier, something they'd never had when they had been dating as teenagers.

_It won't work, Brooke,_ he thought, but instead he said something else entirely.

"_Brooke_ . . ." He pleaded, he felt his eyes burning and his whole body had become hotter and tense with the need to just _stop_ her. But Lucas should have known, more than anyone in Tree Hill, that you could _never_ stop Brooke Davis.

Brooke shook her head, her eyes became shiny with tears Lucas never wanted to see on her face; he hated being the one who caused them, and he always wanted to be the one who wiped them away, and hopefully her fears, too. He'd lost that chance, though; the trust and the hope of becoming something more in the future was ruined because of _him_ and his mistakes.

Her voice, pained, brought him out of his spiralling path of planning to drown himself in the shower, and all thoughts were banished as she spitefully spat, "Don't Brooke me, Luke. I've already done that enough over you."

He ignored the comment, although _wanting_ to smirk inwardly, and he restrained himself from grabbing her hands to make sure she didn't escape from him. He needed her to know this, he _needed_ to tell her, and if he didn't, he'd track her down in New York and do so, "Will you just listen to me?"

"No. The chances of me listening to you are like the chances of you opening up to me two years ago!"

_Ouch._ He felt a pang in his chest. Another mistake he made when he was eighteen. _God_, he was _so_ stupid!

"But I have, Brooke! I _have_ opened up to you."

Her bottom lip quivered, and he knew she was holding back the tears, he knew is must've been like she was in the ice cold water of the Arctic, trying to hold on before the numbness took over and she sank, further into the darkness to never be able to breathe and live again. Her voice cracked when she whispered, "Too late, Luke."

He wasn't going to give up. They both knew that.

Lucas' hands were about to grab Brooke's, but he held back, instead he used them to exaggerate his next point. It was like he was pointing at her, but instead, the distance between his hands was filled in with Brooke's body in front of him. She didn't hug him or anything, but from his view, her standing figure filled the gap in his heart perfectly, like how she stood perfectly in between the distance of his hands. "Brooke, it's _always_ been you!"

"Luke, it _had_ been you. It _had_ been you until _you_ screwed it up with _Peyton!_"

Lucas quietened his voice, "Will you listen to me?"

Brooke shook her head, and with a grunt her hands flew in the air as she almost screamed and stomped on his foot. "Will you _ever_ get it through your thick blonde head that maybe I _don't_ want to listen to anything you have to say? Don't ruin this for me, Luke. You've already done it enough."

Lucas shook his head. He _had_ to tell her. Regardless. It was something he had to do. He'd been rehearsing it in front of his mirror ever since she came back two months ago, and even though he was living with Peyton in her house, he _knew_ Brooke's appearance meant _something_.

And, three weeks ago, he _finally_ figured it out.

"Brooke, _I love you._"

The tears rapidly caressed her face as she quietly protested, "_Luke!_"

He ignored her - not like he had when he was sixteen and eighteen - and he knew he had to convince her that he wasn't lying, that he wasn't going to pull her all the way in to abandon her again. He never intended to do that, anyway. "I do. With all my heart. Ever since I first met you in the back of my car. It's _always_ been you, Brooke. I've just been too blind to see it until _now_."

"_Now?_ Lucas, I'm _leaving_. For good. I don't _want_ anything holding me back. I won't _let_ anything hold me back. I came back to end those ties - to knot them or whatever you do with this metaphor - not create any! You had your chance Luke, and you _stillZ_ went for Peyton. It has _always_ been Peyton. _Always_. It doesn't matter what you say - or feel - that will change that." It was almost like she had gone hysterical.

He wanted to believe she was trying to convince herself, but she was trying to _tell_ him how she had felt two years ago - four years ago, even - and now, he _finally_ was listening.

Her appearance in Tree Hill was always a mystery to him, but now she was filling in the gaps, giving him the pieces to the puzzle, and finally excusing herself from the world where she grew up in. She was leaving, and he _knew_ she wasn't coming back. Even if she said so herself, he know _knew_ she had no intention of coming back.

"I'm willing to try," he whispered, and compared to her outburst, it sounded really pathetic to him.

"But I'm not," Brooke said dejectedly, her voice quietened down as she slumped her shoulders. She was defeated, and she was uncharacteristically forfeiting the fight. "I'm tired, Luke, I'm tired of it _all_."

"Brooke, _please_, give us a chance."

Brooke grunted again, her arms rested heavily on her sides, and she looked him squarely in the eye as she explained, "Luke, I'm _tired_, okay? I'm twenty, and I _need_ to move on. I _have_ to move on, and you're going to have to let me do that."

"You know I can't Brooke," his voice cracked, and he watched as another tear trailed down her pale cheek.

"So be it," she said with a shrug.

Lucas never wanted to give up. Not on Brooke, not basketball. He wanted to fight - not physically or verbally - but he wanted to keep her with him. "_Pretty Girl_ . . ."

"Lucas. _Stop_. It's over."

_She's really given up._

"No it's not. It's not over. It'll never be over," Lucas said, his voice covered thickly with fear and _love_.

Brooke's voice cracked, and how she sounded made Lucas remember Haley and Nathan's wedding. The screaming, the tears."It is for me. Maybe not for you, but it is _for me_."

"I can't let you get on that plane Brooke. I won't let you get on that plane."

"Let me go, Luke," Brooke said, and she surprised him with a hug. She whispered, her breath tickled his ear and sent hot flashes of heat down his body, "You'll always have a place in my heart - I'll _always_ love you - but it's time to let me go." She pulled away, and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. He wanted to keep her there, attached to him, but he knew he couldn't.

He watched as she gathered her small hand bag, and she looked back over her shoulder, and offered him a weak smile. He watched as she retreated from him, and he realised he was the only one who witnessed her escape from Tree Hill.

He hadn't realised he'd been standing there long after she'd disappeared, maybe on the plane, or maybe somewhere beyond the walls of where the visitors without passes can go, but his whole body ached, and with the pain in his chest, he knew it wasn't his heart condition.

It was the breaking of Lucas Scott's heart.


End file.
